All The Box Office Milestones 'Black Panther' Set In Its $112M Second Weekend

Like the headline says, this is another rundown of Black Panther’s ridiculously good domestic box office run. It will be a look at the milestones and records the film broke (or almost broke) during its second Fri-Sun frame. As of this writing the film earned $112 million over its second weekend of domestic release, dropping just 45% from last weekend and bringing its domestic total to $404m in ten days. And now, without further ado, here we go…

Smallest second-weekend drop for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie:

Sure, Black Panther had a slightly larger second-weekend drop than Blade (-36%), Spider-Man (-37%) and Wonder Woman (-43%), but that’s essentially it when it comes to second-weekend holds for big-scale comic book flicks that opened on a Friday. If you want to include superhero movies that opened on Tuesday or Wednesday, then yeah Amazing Spider-Man (-44%), Batman Begins (-43%) and The Matrix (-20%) dropped less as well. But, at the very least, Black Panther’s 45% drop from last weekend’s $202m debut is the smallest second-weekend drop ever for an MCU movie, falling less than The Avengers (-50%), Iron Man (-49%), and Thor (-47%) in their respective second weekends of domestic release.

Second-best hold for a $200 million+ opener:

There are now five films that have opened above $200 million in their opening weekends. And of those five (Black Panther, The Avengers, Jurassic World, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens), only The Force Awakens and Black Panther avoided the “$100m losers club.” That means that Black Panther didn’t drop over $100m between first and second weekends. Its 45% drop was smaller than The Avengers (-50%), Jurassic World (-49%) and The Last Jedi (-67%). Only The Force Awakens (which had Christmas Day as its second Friday and thus fell just 39% in weekend two) had a better hold among the very biggest of big openers.

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Second-biggest non-opening weekend:

As of this writing, Black Panther has earned $112 million in its second Fri-Sun frame. That’s the second-biggest non-opening weekend of all time, between Jurassic World ($106m) and The Force Awakens ($149m). If you want to adjust for inflation, then Black Panther’s second-weekend gross is the fourth-biggest non-opening weekend, behind only The Avengers ($103m/$116m), Jurassic World ($106m/$118m) and The Force Awakens ($149m/$157m).

Second-biggest non-opening Saturday gross:

Black Panther earned $47.6 million on its second Saturday, a 65% jump from its second Friday and a mere 27% drop from its first $65m-grossing Saturday. That’s also the second-biggest non-opening Saturday ever, behind only The Force Awakens’ $57.6m day-nine gross. If you want to adjust for inflation, it’s the fourth-biggest “day nine” Saturday gross, behind Spider-Man, The Avengers and The Force Awakens.

Second-fastest to $350 million in North America:

Black Panther ended its ninth day of domestic release with $368.4 million. It needed just nine days to cross the $350m milestone, alongside Jurassic World ($364m) and The Last Jedi ($350m). Only Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($363m in six days) did it faster.

Second-fastest to $400 million domestic:

Black Panther crossed the once-fabled $400 million mark in just ten days of domestic release, or at the second of its second weekend. Ditto Jurassic World ($402.8m in ten days) while only Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($440m in eight days) did it faster.

Second-biggest ten-day total:

As of this writing, Black Panther has earned $404 million in ten days of North American release. That makes it the third-fastest-grossing movie ever thus far, ahead of The Last Jedi ($368m), The Avengers ($373m) and Jurassic World ($402m). That’s behind only The Force Awakens ($540m). Because Black Panther’s second week of weekday grosses won’t have the Christmas-to-New Years’ advantage that The Last Jedi had, I expect Black Panther fall behind the Star Wars’ sequel’s day-to-day cumes this week. The question is whether the Black Panther can eventually outpace The Last Jedi and the likes of Jurassic World and The Avengers for the long haul. Of course, with a $404m ten-day cume, this is all about bragging rights and making a point about conventional wisdom. It’s already a monster hit now matter if it ends up closer to $550m or $650m by the time it wraps up.

Second-biggest superhero origin story:

With $404 million in ten days, Black Panther sits between Spider-Man ($403m in 2002) and Wonder Woman ($413m in 2017) among all non-sequel comic book superhero movies. And yeah, barring a fluke, it should pass Spider-Man today and Wonder Woman tomorrow or Wednesday to become (sans inflation) the biggest non-sequel, solo superhero flick of all time in domestic grosses.

Worldwide is slightly more complicated, but it should pass Amazing Spider-Man ($757 million in 2012) soon enough, with only Spider-Man and Wonder Woman’s respective $821m global grosses left to top over the next week. Inflation means that a $425m+ domestic gross will put it behind only Superman ($134m in 1978/$526m in 2018), Batman ($251m in 1989/$578m today) and Spider-Man ($403m in 2002/$638m today). That’s not bad company whether or not it gets past any of those by the end.

Third-biggest non-opening Sunday gross:

As of this writing, Black Panther earned $35.6 million on its second Sunday, a drop of just 25% from Saturday and a drop of 41% from its initial $60m Sunday (which was bumped up due to Monday being a holiday). That $35.6m gross is the third-biggest day-ten gross ever, behind only Jurassic World ($38.3m) and The Force Awakens ($43.1m).

Fourth-fastest to $300 million in North America:

Black Panther crossed the $300 million mark on its eighth day of release, the same number of days that it took Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jurassic World to do likewise. Its eight-day gross ($320m) put it just below The Last Jedi ($321m) and Jurassic World ($325m) while only Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($325m in five days) did it faster.

Sixth-biggest Friday which wasn’t part of an opening weekend:

Black Panther earned $28.8 million on its second Friday, which was the 15th-biggest non-opening day Friday gross of all time. But most of the 14 bigger “non-opening day” Friday grosses were for movies that opened on a Wednesday or Thursday (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Spider-Man 2, The Matrix Reloaded, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Despicable Me 2, The Hangover Part II). Those Friday grosses were part of their opening weekends. Oh, and American Sniper went wide on its 23rd day of release with a $30m Friday.

Black Panther actually snagged the sixth-biggest “non-opening” wide release Friday gross of all time, behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($49 million on day eight and $34.3m on day 15), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($31.5m on day eight, over Thanksgiving weekend), The Avengers ($29.2m on day eight) and Jurassic World ($29.1m on day eight). So you take away the Christmas/New Year’s holidays and the Thanksgiving holiday bump, and you’re left with The Avengers and Jurassic World. That’s not exactly the worst company in the world.

Eighth-biggest comic book superhero movie ever:

Since it’s ranked in eighth-place for both comic book flicks and superhero movies (and it’s already passed the “What about this one?!” likes of Matrix Reloaded, The Incredibles and Hancock), this is pretty simple. In just ten days of release, Black Panther sits behind only Wonder Woman ($413m), Captain America: Civil War ($408m), Iron Man 3 ($409m), The Dark Knight Rises ($448m), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($458m), The Dark Knight ($534m) and The Avengers ($623m). And, yeah, it’s a pretty solid bet than the Ryan Coogler-directed MCU flick will end up somewhere between The Dark Knight and The Avengers, thus becoming the biggest solo superhero movie ever.

And if you want to adjust for inflation, it’s already the 15th-biggest such title (counting The Matrix Reloaded’s $428 million adjusted gross from a $281m 2003 cume). It should crack the top-ten by the end of next weekend. If or when it gets past $552 million (Spider-Man 2’s adjusted gross from a $373m 2004 cume), it’ll be behind only Batman ($251m/$578m), Spider-Man ($403m/$638m), The Dark Knight ($534m/$683m) and The Avengers ($623m/$706m) among all comic book or superhero movies. So, barring a fluke, Chadwick Boseman will surely join Christopher Reeve, Michael Keaton and Toby Maguire as one of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

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I've studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for 28 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last ten years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing ...